On the first anniversary of my father’s death (back in the mid-80s), my mom and I visited his grave and I took the photo below. It took the photo with a simple 35mm camera, and I’ve never tinkered with it digitally. What’s here is exactly what Kodak produced — a magical moment that my mom had enlarged and hung on her wall. I couldn’t have made it come out that way if I had tried. The really weird thing is that, as we were standing by his grave that day, she wondered, aloud, what he “looks like now.” See why I like to pretend that it’s possible to make magic??

From the NY Times via www.talkleft.com, which everyone should read daily.
For decades, illegal immigrants have often flourished because officials lacked the staff, resources and political will to deport them. But since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the government has been detaining and deporting illegal immigrants from countries considered breeding grounds for terrorists.
“There’s been a major shift in our priorities,” said Jim Chaparro, acting director for interior enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, which has subsumed the old immigration service.
[snip]
Some of those facing deportation have waited months or years for officials to process applications to legalize their status. Immigration lawyers say they believe that a substantial number of these men avoid deportation. Their clients are only illegal, the lawyers say, because of the government’s inefficiency.
[snip]
Officials acknowledged that most Arab and Muslim immigrants swept up in counterterrorism sweeps have no ties to terrorist groups. Of the 82,000 men who showed up at immigration offices, and tens of thousands more screened at airports and border crossings in the past six months, 11 have had links to terrorism.
Just imagine how future history will tell the tale of America

Big picture and little picture, I

The Bushites have set the standards: outright lies, political and economic cronyism, conflicts of interest, disregard for the will of the American public.
And the F.C.C. is patriotically adhering to those standards.
From Bob Herbert

When I

Today a post by Bob Harris in thismodernworld.com links to a story in the Independent by Glen Rangwala (lecturer in politics at Newnham College, Cambridge ), in which he shows how the UK and the US manipulated UN reports – and conjured an anthrax dump from thin air.
Well, we aren